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The Corpus Hermetica.......................................................................................................................................1
Attributed to Hermes Trismestigustus.....................................................................................................1
The First Book. .......................................................................................................................................1
The Second Book. Called "Poemander." ................................................................................................5
The Third Book. Called "The Holy Sermon." .....................................................................................12
The Fourth Book. Called "The Key." ...................................................................................................12
The Fifth Book......................................................................................................................................18
The Sixth Book. Called "That in God alone is Good." ........................................................................21
The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of
Silence. To His Son Tat........................................................................................................................23
The Eighth Book. That The Greatest Evil In Man, Is The Not Knowing God. ..................................28
The Ninth Book. A Universal Sermon To Asclepius...........................................................................29
The Tenth Book. The Mind to Hermes. ................................................................................................33
The Eleventh Book. Of the Common Mind to Tat...............................................................................40
The Twelfth Book. His Crater or Monas..............................................................................................46
The Thirteenth Book. Of Sense and Understanding.............................................................................49
The Fourteenth Book. Of Operation and Sense....................................................................................52
The Fifteenth Book. Of Truth to His Son Tat.......................................................................................55
The Sixteenth Book. That None of the Things that are, can Perish......................................................58
The Seventeenth Book. To Asclepius, to be Truly Wise......................................................................59
"Enoch was the first who invented books and different sorts of writing. The ancient
Greeks declare that Enoch is the same as Mercury Trismegistus [Hermes], and that
he taught the sons of men the art of building cities, and enacted some admirable
laws...He discovered the knowledge of the Zodiac, and the course of the Planets;
and he pointed out to the sons of men, that they should worship God, that they
should fast, that they should pray, that they should give alms, votive offerings, and
tenths. He reprobated abominable foods and drunkenness, and appointed festivals
for sacrifices to the Sun, at each of the Zodiacal Signs."
Hebraeus
For there can be no Religion more true or just, than to know the things that are; and to acknowledge thanks
for all things, to him that made them, which thing I shall not cease continually to do.
What then should a man do, O Father, to lead his life well, seeing there is nothing here true ?
Be Pious and Religious, O my Son, for he that doth so, is the best and highest Philosopher; and with out
Philosophy, it is impossible ever to attain to the height and exactness of Piety or Religion.
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2. God, and the Mind, and Nature, and Matter, and Operation, or Working and Necessity, and the End and
Renovation.
3. For there were in the Chaos, an infinite darkness in the Abyss or bottomless Depth, and Water, and a subtle
Spirit intelligible in Power; and there went out the Holy Light, and the Elements were coagulated from the
Sand out of the moist Substance.
4. And all the Gods distinguished the Nature full of Seeds.
5. And when all things were interminated and unmade up, the light things were divided on high. And the
heavy things were founded upon the moist sand, all things being Terminated or Divided by Fire; and being
sustained or hung up by the Spirit they were so carried, and the Heaven was seen in Seven Circles.
6. And the Gods were seen in their Ideas of the Stars, with all their Signs, and the Stars were numbered, with
the Gods in them. And the Sphere was all lined with Air, carried about in a circular, motion by the Spirit of
God.
7. And every God by his internal power, did that which was commanded him; and there were made four
footed things, and creeping things, and such as live in the Water, and such as fly, and every fruitful Seed, and
Grass, and the Flowers of all Greens, and which had sowed in themselves the Seeds of Regeneration.
8. As also the Generations of men to the knowledge of the Divine Works, and a lively or working Testimony
of Nature, and a multitude of men, and the Dominion of all things under Heaven and the knowledge of good
things, and to be increased in increasing, and multiplied in multitude.
9. And every Soul in flesh, by the wonderful working of the Gods in the Circles, to the beholding of Heaven,
the Gods, Divine Works, and the Operations of Nature; and for Signs of good things, and the knowledge of
the Divine Power, and to find out every cunning workmanship of good things.
10. So it beginneth to live in them, and to be wise according to the Operation of the course of the circular
Gods; and to be resolved into that which shall be great Monuments; and Remembrances of the cunning
Works done upon Earth, leaving them to be read by the darkness of times.
11. And every generation of living flesh, of Fruit, Seed, and all Handicrafts, though they be lost, must of
necessity be renewed by the renovation of the Gods, and of the Nature of a Circle, moving in number; for it is
a Divine thing, that every world temperature should be renewed by nature, for in that which is Divine, is
Nature also established.
2. God therefore, and the Father, and the Good, O Tat, have the same Nature, or rather also the same Act and
Operation.
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2. But do thou contemplate in thy Mind, how that which to many seems hidden and unmanifest, may be most
manifest unto thee.
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2. And if it be so, then must he be an Essence or Substance void of all motion and generation; but nothing is
void or empty of him.
3. And this Essence hath about or in himself a Stable, and firm Operation, wanting nothing, most full, and
giving abundantly.
4. One thing is the Beginning of all things, for it giveth all things; and when I name the Good, I mean that
which is altogether and always Good.
5. This is present to none, but God alone; for he wanteth nothing, that he should desire to have it, nor can
anything be taken from him; the loss whereof may grieve him; for sorrow is a part of evilness.
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2. And when I did humbly entreat thee, at the going up the Mountain after thou hadst discoursed unto me,
having a great desire, to learn this Argument of Regeneration ; because among all the rest, I am ignorant only
of this thou toldst me thou wouldst impart it unto me, when I would estrange myself from the World:
whereupon I made myself ready, and have vindicated the understanding that is in me, from the deceit of the
World.
3. Now then fulfill my defects, and as thou saidst instruct me of Regeneration, either by word of mouth or
secretly; for I know not, O Trismegistus, of what Substance, or what Womb or what Seed a Man is thus born.
4. Hermes. O Son, this Wisdom is to be understood in silence, and the Seed is the true Good.
5. Tat. Who soweth it, O Father . for I am utterly ignorant and doubtful.
6. Hermes. The Will of God, O Son.
The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence.
23 To Hi
The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence.
24 To Hi
The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence.
25 To Hi
The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence.
26 To Hi
The Seventh Book. His Secret Sermon in the Mount Of Regeneration, and the Profession of Silence.
27 To Hi
The Eighth Book. That The Greatest Evil In Man, Is The Not Knowing
God.
1. Whither are you carried, O Men, drunken with drinking up the strong Wine of Ignorance? which seeing you
cannot bear: Why do you not vomit it up again?
2. Stand, and be sober, and look up again with the eyes of your heart; and if you cannot all do so, yet do as
many as you can.
3. For the malice of Ignorance surroundeth all the Earth, and corrupteth the Soul, shut up in the Body not
suffering it to arrive at the Havens of Salvation.
4. Suffer not yourselves to he carried with the great stream, but stem the tide, you that can lay hold of the
Haven of Safety, and make your full course towards it.
5. Seek one that may lead you by the hand, and conduct you to the door of Truth and Knowledge, where the
clear Light is that is pure from Darkness, where there is not one drunken, but all are sober and in their heart
look up to him, whose pleasure it is to be seen.
The Eighth Book. That The Greatest Evil In Man, Is The Not Knowing God.
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2. Therefore, the Lord make it plain to me in this point ; for I will believe thee only, for the manifestation of
these things.
3. Then said the Mind how the case stands.
4. God and all.
5. God, Eternity, the World, Time, Generation,
6. God made Eternity, Eternity the World; the World Time, and Time Generation.
7. Of God, as it were the Substance, is the Good, the Fair, Blessedness, Wisdom.
8. Of Eternity, Identity, or Selfness.
9. Of the World, Order.
10. Of Time, Change.
11. Of Generation, Life, and Death.
The Tenth Book. The Mind to Hermes.
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2. Therefore thus think of him, as present everywhere, and being always, and making all things, and one
above, that by his Will hath framed the things that are.
3. For that is his Body, not tangible, nor visible, nor measurable, nor extensible, nor like any other body.
4. For it is neither Fire, nor Water, nor Air, nor Wind, but all these things are of him, for being Good, he hath
dedicated that name unto himself alone.
5. But he would also adorn the Earth, but with the Ornament of a Divine Body.
6. And he sent Man an Immortal and a Mortal wight.
7. And Man had more than all living Creatures, and the World, because of his Speech, and Mind.
The Twelfth Book. His Crater or Monas.
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2. For Sense and Understanding seem to differ, because the one is material, the other essential.
3. But unto me, they appear to be both one, or united, and not divided in men, I mean.
4. For in other living Creatures, Sense is united unto Nature but in men to Understanding.
5. But the Mind differs from Understanding, as much as God from Divinity.
6. For Divinity is from or under God, and Understanding from the Mind, being the sister of the Word or
Speech, and they the Instruments one of another.
7. Forneither is the Word pronounced without Understanding, neither is Understanding manifested without
the Word.
8. Therefore Sense and Understanding do both flow together into a man, as if they were infolded one within
another.
9. For neither is it possible without Sense to Understand, nor can we have Sense without Understanding.
10. And yet it is possible (for the Time being) that the Understanding may understand without Sense, as they
that fantasy Visions in their Dreams.
11. But it seems unto me, that both the operations are in the Visions of Dreams, and that the Sense is stirred
up out of sleep, unto awaking.
12. For man is divided into a Body and a Soul; when both parts of the Sense accord one with another, then is
the understanding childed, or brought forth by the Mind pronounced.
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2. But as far as it is possible, and just, I say, That Truth is only in the Eternal Bodies, whose very Bodies be
also true.
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The Sixteenth Book. That None of the Things that are, can Perish.
1. Hermes. We must now speak of the Soul and Body, O Son; after what manner the Soul is Immortal, and what
operation that is, which constitutes the Body, and dissolves it.
2. But in none of these is Death, for it is a conception of a name, which is either an empty word, or else it is
wrongly called Death (by the taking away the first letter,) instead of Immortal. [Thanatos for Athanatos.]
3. For Death is destruction, but there is nothing in the whole world that is destroyed.
4. For if the World be a second God, and an Immortal living Wight, it is impossible that any part of an
Immortal living Wight should die.
5. But all things that are in the World, are members of the World, especially Man, the reasonable living
Wight.
6. For the first of all is God, the Eternal and Unmade, and the Workman of all things.
7. The second is the World, made by him, after his own Image and by him holden together, and nourished,
nd immortalized; and as from its own Father, ever living.
8. So that as Immortal, it is ever living, and ever immortal.
9. For that which is ever living, differs from that which is eternal.
The Sixteenth Book. That None of the Things that are, can Perish.
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2. But to thee I have thought good to write in few words, choosing out the principal heads of the things then
spoken, and to interpret them more mystically, because thou hast, both more years, and more knowledge of
Nature.
3. All things that appear, were made, and are made.
4. Those things that are made, are not made by themselves, but by another.
5. And there are many things made, but especially all things that appear, and which are different, and not like.
6. If the things that be made and done, be made and done by another, there must be one that must make, and
do them; and he unmade, and more ancient than the things that are made.
7. For I affirm the things that are made, to be made by another; and it is impossible, that of the things that are
made any should be more ancient than all, but only that which is not made.
8. He is stronger, and One, and only knowing all things indeed, as not having any thing more ancient than
himself.
9. For he bears rule, both over multitude, and greatness, and the diversity of the things that are made, and the
continuity of the Facture and of the Operation.
10. Moreover, the things that are made, are visible, but he is invisible; and for this cause, he maketh them,
that he may be visible; and therefore he makes them always.
11. Thus it is fit to understand and understanding to admire and admiring to think thy self happy, that
knowest thy natural Father.
12. For what is sweeter than a Natural Father?
13. Who therefore is this, or how shall we know him?
14. Or is it just to ascribe unto him alone, the Title and Appellation of God, or of the Maker, or of the Father,
or of all Three? That of God because of his Power; the Maker because of his Working and Operation; and the
Father, because of his Goodness.
15. For Power is different from the things that are made, but Act or Operation, in that all things are made.
16. Wherefore, letting go all much and vain talking, we must understand these two things, That Which is
Made, and Him Which is the Maker; for there is nothing in the middle, between these Two, nor is there any
third.
17. Therefore understanding All things, remember these Two; and think that these are All things, putting
nothing into doubt; neither of the things above, nor of the things below; neither of things changeable, nor
things that are in darkness or secret.
18. For All things, are but two Things, That which Maketh, and that which is Made, and the One of them
The Seventeenth Book. To Asclepius, to be Truly Wise.
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